One typical type of textile machine to which the invention relates is e.g. a drawing frame or drafting apparatus. The exit portion of the draw frame often is formed by a pair of rollers which deliver its product from the drafting region. At this stage, the fiber material may be in the form of a thin and relatively wide fleece which subsequently enters a hopper or funnel (having a cone shaped inner face) which converts the fleece into a sliver or band having a more or less circular cross-section. Downstream of the funnel, the sliver is taken up by a pair of calender-rollers which draw the sliver through the funnel and deliver it to downstream equipment.
Sometimes the hoppers or funnels are also equipped with a measuring device such as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,864,853 which leads the sliver onto a pair of calender-rollers.
The textile machine into which the textile intermediate product may be drawn-in can also be a known open-end spinning machine. The spinbox of such a machine usually has an entry portion with a pair of take-up rollers into which a sliver has to be introduced when spinning operations begin. DE 41 24 652 especially relates to a process designed for introducing the fibrous band automatically into an open-end spinning machine. In the device for performing the process of DE 41 24 652, the spun band is introduced into a torsion nozzle by a gripper. The torsion nozzle has a funnel-shaped aperture via which the gripper introduces the prepared end of the spun band into the torsion nozzle, where it is wetted, twisted and subsequently also dried by a rotating air current. The band is then picked up by a feeding cylinder.
A disadvantage of this known device can be seen in the fact that the band has to be supplied by a gripper. Although a certain suction action is produced in the swirl nozzle in the longitudinal direction of the spun band, such action is not sufficient to take in the spun band automatically and move it forward in the swirl nozzle. This is also because the primary aim of the swirl nozzle is to twist the spun band and set it by means of liquid.